Making a name for yourself is tough in the constantly changing music industry. An artist must create their own unique sound and style. You must be open to inspiration from every experience you have. One artist that is doing just that right now is our new discovery Richy Fancy.
We caught up with the interesting artist to get a look into his growth and his new album coming out at the end of this month. Enjoy the interview
First off, What prompted you to choose the moniker Richy Fancy?
My friends gave me the nickname Mr. Fancy in college freshman year because I was always suiting up all the time. The following year I ended up releasing a series of mixtapes called “Flight of Fancy” which worked well with my persona I was studying aeronautical engineering at the time. To build around the word Fancy I added the shortened version of my first name Richard. The unique “y” spelling made logo design a lot easier and helped with search engine optimisation.
How would you describe your unique original sound?
My parents put me in piano lessons when I was 4 years old, so my musical journey stemmed from a classical background. Eventually I ended up learning to play six other instruments including: flute, recorder, harmonica, ocarina, guitar and the Chinese dulcimer. I would say my unique sound is a display of the creative influences from different cultures I have encountered in my travels, brought to live with these instruments.
We hear you grew up in 5 different countries. Do you feel that gave you a wide variety of influences to choose from?
Yes definitely. Majority of my music draw inspiration from the diverse cultures and places I have been fortunate enough to experience. Particularly Malaysia and Singapore – multicultural marvels where the Chinese, Malays, and other ethnic groups all live in relative harmony.
Which artists have had the biggest impact on Richy Fancy?
Hans Zimmer and his ability to mix an entire orchestra with electronic music effortlessly. Timmy Trumpet & Kygo for their incorporation of live instruments in stage production and performances. Also, more recently Ekali, Zhu and Golden Features for their distinctive sounds.
How has it been working with Bass Off Records?
The whole experience has been amazing. Sentosa was my first release with a label so it was a great learning opportunity for myself and credits to the team at Bass Off Recs for their professionalism.
Your track “Sentosa” really caught my attention. How does a song come to you? What is your songwriting process?
Most of my tracks are inspired by a place or time in my memory. For example, Sentosa was a track that I started while holidaying in Singapore. It is about an entertainment resort island just off the southern coast – one of my favourite holiday spots in the world.
How do you hope to make the listener feel with your music?
I want the audience to be able to relive my journeys through my music.
What advice would you give to other artists rising in the EDM scene?
I think the best advice I could give a rising artist is to experiment with producing different genres and keep an open mind. There are so many things that you can learn by playing around with a track in a completely different scope. And you never know, could discover a new genre you didn’t think you’d enjoy.
What does the future hold for Richy Fancy?
My next release ‘In This Silence’ is coming out on the 21st of February. The track was made to raise awareness for mental health issues – a very prevalent problem amongst youths and adolescents in Australia. In the hope of reducing stigma around the matter and get more people to talk about challenges they may be facing.
Performance wise I would love to play more shows on tour outside of Oceania and South East Asia. Perhaps somewhere in Europe would be amazing.
You can find more from Richy Fancy
on SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/richyfancy
on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RichyFancy/
on Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/RichyFancy/
on Instagram: www.instagram.com/richyfancy
